What the average time taken is for initial maintenance calculations; and what the main causes of delay in making those calculations are.
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) aims to complete 80 percent of initial maintenance calculations within six weeks The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) and the latest statistics are currently available to June 2025. Table 1 of the latest National tables includes information on the total number of applications received by CMS for each quarter and the percentage cleared within 6 weeks and 12 weeks, from quarter ending June 2024 to quarter ending June 2025 The main causes of delay in completing maintenance calculations include parent disputes, where we need to trace and verify the paying parent’s identity or location and when income investigation and verification is required We continue to mitigate these factors through income verification from HMRC or benefits systems, quality assurance controls, and responsive resourcing to meet service-level targets. The CMS is committed to making the most effective use of its strong enforcement powers, and we have made a number of improvements to its processes to drive case compliance and challenge non-compliant behaviours, but we do not currently have performance targets on the time to enforcement following non-payment. We are dedicated to using enforcement powers fairly and in the best interests of children and separated families, but the specific actions taken following non-payment, and associated timescales will vary depending on the circumstances of a case. CMS monitors customer experience and satisfaction as part of its regular operational rhythm, however, we do not currently have customer satisfaction performance targets for CMS, but work is ongoing to develop benchmarks against which we can measure performance.